Every homeowner wants to feel safe and secure when they are inside of their own home. Unfortunately, many homes are broken into every year, and on average, about
9 percent of all home break-ins occur when a determined intruder breaks into the garage. After breaking into the garage, these intruders often gain access to the rest of the home through the house-to-garage door.
Old garage doors and garage door openers without today's advanced security features are often easier for criminals to break into than modern garage doors and openers that are equipped with state-of-the-art security technology. Read on to learn four garage door security tips to keep in mind when replacing your garage door and door opener.
1. Choose the Right Garage Door Locks Garage doors come equipped with many different types of locks. Some garage door locks are easier to break or pick than others. The most common type of garage door lock is the T-handle lock, although, unfortunately, this is the easiest type of lock to defeat.
In addition, T-handle locks can be opened from both the inside and outside of the garage. When a thief sees the external lock, they see an obvious point-of-entry into the garage and then attempt to pick or break the lock.
Many other types of garage door locks are more secure because they have no exterior lock that can be picked or broken by a home intruder. Just a couple of these locks include side-mount deadbolt locks that can only be unlocked from inside of the garage and key-less digital locks that allow you to open your garage door by entering a code into a keypad that is placed near your door.
If you must have a garage door lock that can be opened from the home exterior with a key, then choose a double-cylinder garage door deadbolt lock that is much more difficult for a home intruder to defeat than a T-handle lock.
2. Choose a Secure Garage Door Opener If you have an outdated garage door opener, then it may lack modern technology that helps prevent garage door break-ins. Outdated garage door openers can be opened by hackers using devices called code grabbers. They use these devices to record garage door opener codes. Once a code is recorded, it can be replayed to trigger the garage door opener to open the door, just like it would open when you use your own garage door remote.
Modern garage door openers are equipped with technology meant to defeat these code grabbers. Garage door opener rolling code technology changes the garage door code every time you open it, ensuring that any recorded codes cannot be used by a criminal to later open the door.
Code encryption is another advanced garage door opener security feature designed to defeat new garage door hacker technology as it is developed.
A remote lockout feature is an additional garage door opener security feature to look for. This feature allows you to disable all garage door opener remotes with the press of a button if a remote were to become lost or stolen.
3. Disable the Garage Door Opener Emergency Release LeverMost garage door openers are equipped with emergency release levers that allow you to open the garage door manually in the event of a power outage. While these levers are useful, many home intruders have learned how to break into garages by shoving objects, such as coat hangers, through garage door gaps or windows and then using these objects to pull the release lever cords.
To make it more difficult for a determined intruder to pull this lever with an object they insert into the garage door, remove the emergency release lever cord. This cord is much easier for an intruder to pull on from outdoors than the lever itself.
However, to increase garage door security even more, attach the lever to its assembly with a thin wire. This will prevent the lever from being pulled from outdoors, even if a burglar were to grab onto the lever itself from outside.
4. Skip Garage Door Windows For maximum security, choose a garage door with no windows. A potential intruder's motivation to break into your garage can increase if they see high-value items inside of it. In addition, a determined thief will often look through these windows to examine your garage's hidden locking mechanism, and then attempt to find a way to defeat it.
A home intruder can also break a window and then insert and object through it they then use to engage your garage door opener's emergency release lever.
If you must have garage door windows, choose frosted or textured safety glass that lets light into the garage while obscuring a home intruder’s view inside of the garage.
If you are looking to replace your garage door and door opener and want to feel as safe in your own home as possible, then follow these four garage door security tips. Contact the garage door experts at Edgemont Garage Doors to schedule
new garage door and door opener installation today.
